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My Fascination with La Paz

I landed in Bolivia after a grueling overnight flight from Miami in El Alto, the highest international airport in the world at a dizzying altitude of 13,323 feet (4,061 m). Coming from the flat land of Minnesota at meager 830 feet (264 m) above sea level and a restless night’s sleep, I felt exhausted, unbalanced and elated all the same to finally be in Bolivia.

A driver from our hotel picked us up and drove us the short 8 miles or so down into the heart of La Paz. As we left the bustling run-down city of El Alto and meandered down the impossibly steep, colorful streets of La Paz I looked around me in fascination. In all my travels around the world, I had never seen anything quite like La Paz. Built within a giant bowl-shaped canyon with streets as steep as ski hills, there she laid before me: A metropolitan area of over 2 million people densely populated within the sheer rocks that surround La Paz and lead to the majestic, snow-capped Andes.

Leaving the high plateau of El Alto, I got the first real view of La Paz below and was stunned.

If ever you get lost in La Paz, simply head downhill. You are bound to find yourself again

And then I saw her in all her glory and was awestruck. La Paz seemed to go on forever into the distant altiplano, the highlands for which this part of Bolivia is known for.

Despite my fatigue, I was at the edge of my seat peering outside the car window with my mouth open in stunned surprise at the color, the craziness and the impossibility of La Paz. I remembered a page I’d read in my Lonely Planet describing La Paz as having “medieval-looking buildings ascend the slopes with Seussian haphazardness” and laughed at how true the author was. La Paz was truly out of this world and like nothing I’d ever seen.

Views from El Alto descending into La Paz

Looking “up” towards El Alto and the bird’s nest of wires.

Depending on the time of day, the drive from the airport down to La Paz can take either 20 minutes or over an hour. The windy, serpentine roads that snake down into the heart and soul of the city become overwhelmed with traffic as cars, buses and mini buses crowd the narrow, overpopulated streets and fight for the right away.

I was struck by the steepness and the riot of color throughout the city. In fact, everywhere I looked it was bursting with color outside the car window. I think La Paz is the most colorful place on earth.

Even the buildings have color!

When you reach the center of La Paz, you are only half way down. The city keeps going down for miles until you reach the bottom at Zona Sur which I swear is an entirely different climate zone. We stayed in the trendy, touristy central of La Paz near the gorgeous Plaza San Francisco simply to acclimatize. We were doing a big hike in the next few days and going all the way down to uppity Zona Sur would prove to be too low. Imagine that!

I sat fixated to the car window trying to breathe it all in. I had only been in La Paz for a half an hour and already I was overwhelmed with it all. I would find that along with a slight sense of dizziness, the colors, the sounds and the pace of La Paz would continually give me sensory overload over the next few days. It was a good thing we were headed for the peace and tranquility of the mountains!

Shots from a moving car. Streets like these with colorful markets abound are everywhere in La Paz. You will never want to put your camera away for a single second.

The colors outside on the street were so incredibly brilliant it almost hurt your eyes. For the color-deprived people in the northern hemisphere, it was instant eye candy!

We arrived at our hotel and thankfully our room was ready. After over 20 hours of travel, we were both exhausted yet I had plans for that afternoon. I was to meet with a local non-profit in town called Sutisana to learn about their amazing work in saving women from prostitution and changing their lives.

But first it was time for a quick shower, some lunch and a look around the live wire neighborhood that never seemed to sleep.

The San Francisco Plaza where our hotel was.

We had booked a room at the lovely Hostal Naira, the perfect location for sightseeing and acclimatizing to the high elevation for the next few days.

The rooms were quaint but clean. The staff was overwhelmingly welcoming, and the location was by far the best. There were shops, markets, restaurants, cafes and the best of all, amazing people-watching right outside our doorstep. It was going to be a busy couple of days ahead of us exploring the amazing, colorful and quirky La Paz. I could hardly wait!

A common sight in La Paz. The gorgeously colorful Aymara women.

Vendors stalls are everywhere and selling pretty much everything you need.

Nicole I can feel the excitement oozing out of this post. What an extraordinary city! The photo with the mountain in the background of the endless hills is stunning. The colors and action are mesmerizing. I look forward to reading more.

Thanks Sue! I have so many pictures mostly from walking around La Paz that I’m not even sure where to start! I’m going to wait until after the holidays to begin working on them! 🙂 I think for now it is time for a little break! Maybe one or two last posts before the end of the year? We’ll see how busy it gets with all the family fun! 🙂

La Paz looks vibrant and the bright colors just bring things to life. Did you have any altitude sickness? A friend who visited La Paz told me that there were oxygen masks on hand when they landed in case they needed them. I had a bad bout of it when I went to Addis Ababa and yet is is much lower than La Paz.